Houston United Methodist Church

I believe we must be much more than a fam ily that thinks and acts alike, we must be one that loves unconditionally, as Jesus loved, in order to be the "Christ" family we were meant to be.

I will not be in the office today, am taking a day to myself after the busy "Holy Week". Blessings, Pastor Roger

Worship Services this week: Thursday @ 6:30PM-Maundy Thursday-Houston UMC Friday @ 7PM-Good Friday service-Raymondville UMC Sunday @ 6:30 AM-Easter Sonrise Service-Emmett Kelly Park (Upper Pavilion)-Light breakfast served at Houston UMC following service.... Traditional Worship @ 9AM-Houston UMC Traditional Worship @ 11AM-Raymondville UMC See more

Due to weather conditions, I will be working from home today. If anyone needs to contact me, please do via cell phone. Thank you. Blessings, Pastor Roger

Worship committee meeting tonight is canceled. Please contact each other to ensure all are aware. Blessings, Pastor Roger

Due to current weather conditions, the church office will be closed today. Tonight's Worship Committee Meeting is on hold until streets and weather are checked later. Be safe today. Blessings, Pastor Roger

Morning Musings-1/20/2021 "God Created All Good" Recently I have heard some make statements regarding other people; those who do not act, speak, resemble, or even enact faith, in the manner many hold up as "Christian" beliefs. My morning devotional readings remind me that God created us all.... Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Carrera (1909-1999) reminds me, "We all believe that all human beings are children of the same heavenly Father. Those who have the same father are brothers and sisters. Let us really treat each other as brothers and sisters!" God creates us all. God did not speak evil into creation. God did not create anything evil. In fact, everything God created God called "good" and "very good". With that in mind I am of the constant belief that inherently not only are we all good, but that we also are so fully interrelated that it is like a super large, often dysfunctional family. Maybe this is why there is so much anger, hate, hurt, and disappointment in the world. We act more like siblings that vie for the best affections of parents against each other. Maybe then, if we put aside those things that we use to pit ourselves against the other, accepting them as siblings of the same parent (let's be honest, none of us grow up with exactly the same beliefs, understandings, gifts, and talents as another) then we may begin to see each other with dignity and respect due our status as siblings of the same parent and not of differing families. It may even be possible to begin to love one another without judgment. The beginning of transformation will enter, and love will start to overcome separation. Amen.

Morning Musings-10/16/2020 "Forgiving Love" No, I do not mean we need to forgive love, I am using it as it is used in a recent daily devotional from Fr. Richard Rohr. Rohr writes:... "God has created a world where there is no technique or magical method for purity or perfection. Forgiving love is the only way out and the only final answer is God’s infinite Love and our ability to endlessly draw upon it." I am of the opinion that this is very true. In my own denomination there are means of grace that help us to become more like Jesus, but in the end the truest way is to practice this idea of "forgiving love". Forgiving love is what Jesus exhibited on the cross. It did not matter that others accepted it, what mattered was the desire to be in harmony with God, who continuously forgave the "stiff-necked" Hebrew people that claimed they would follow only God and yet continuously turned away to follow other desires. Forging love calls on each of us to "forgive just as we have been forgiven". The final result of this growing and all consuming act of "forgiving love" may never be realized in my own lifetime, except by those who have experienced my own "forgiving love". If I cannot fully embrace and practice this same "forgiving love" that is poured out from God for me, then it may be that I need to rethink my relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Morning Musings-10/15/2020 "Our Likeness to God's Image" Genesis 1:27 (NRSV) reads, "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."... What exactly do we gain from reading that? For me, it is a reminder of God's diverse creation. I am not sure how so many got this mental picture of a god who looked like Zeus but I realize I used to have this same mental image. I had to go back just a bit to the first part of verse 26 to gain a better understanding of God's diverse design-"Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness..." Being made in "God's" image is not some deference to a group of divine beings such as the Greeks understood, I think it is a real reference to the many facets of Gods image. God is neither male or female. God reminded Moses that no one could look on his face and live. Maybe that is because it is a face that is eternally the image of every living being on earth. To me this will always be a reminder that God's design was for a very diverse world. John, in his New Testament writing states, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24) We cannot place God into some set box with boundaries of nation, color, religion, or any other identity. If we are made in God's image and God is "spirit" then we can only find truth in the diverse and miraculous nature of the god who "Is". Amen.

Morning Musings-10/10/2020 "False Control" Anne Lamott, Writer of both fiction and non-fiction writes:... "I heard an old man speak once, someone who had been sober for fifty years, a very prominent doctor. He said that he’d finally figured out a few years ago that his profound sense of control, in the world and over his life, is another addiction and a total illusion. He said that when he sees little kids sitting in the back seat of cars, in those car seats that have steering wheels, with grim expressions of concentration on their faces, clearly convinced that their efforts are causing the car to do whatever it is doing, he thinks of himself and his relationship with God: God who drives along silently, gently amused, in the real driver’s seat." Most of us think we are in control of our life. In reality we are the children in the back seat, sitting in a booster that has a steering wheel. We feel like we can make things happen without God, a false sense of control. I often wonder if this is what leads to much of the violence in our world today. We realize that we really have lost control and in our efforts to gain back that control (which we never had) we become angry, seeking vengeance on anyone or anything that blocks us. When we let go of this need for a for a false sense of control we begin to recognize our dependence on the one who gives life and liberty, hope to all. Amen.

Morning Musings-10/08/2020 "Our Life Speaks For Us" Hindu spiritualist and practitioner, Mahatma Gandhi writes:... "It is better to allow our lives to speak for us than our words. God did not bear the cross only two thousand years ago. He bears it today, and he dies and is resurrected from day to day. It would be a poor comfort to the world if it had to depend on a historical God who died two thousand years ago. Do not, then, preach the God of history, but show him as he lives today through you." Gandhi had studied scripture along with the holy writings of his own faith, and other faiths. As I read the above quote I am reminded how our lived out life truly tells the story not only of our "Christianity" but also the desires of our heart-our deepest self. Unfortunately it seems that for many their desire is separation, exclusion, and destruction, rather than life, hope, and transformation. Catholic Priest, Fr. Michael Perry, used this line in a sermon to the Franciscan order, "Humans and the creaturely world have as their vocation the duty to support and complete one another, not to compete against and destroy one another." I think that not only did Gandhi know the importance of this statement, most of the worlds proclaimers (by action) of the "Beatitudes" not only know this but practice it as a path of righteousness to God, no matter which faith tradition we call ourselves. Through this truly comes the healing of our world and the inviting of God's new kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Morning Musings-10/3/2020 "Fear Changes our Narrative" Fear changes us and gives us license to do many things we would not do if we learned to trust God instead of listening to news pundits from every outlet available. Maybe this humorous story (parable) from Sufi Muslims can better highlight this for us:...Continue reading

As I read this I was challenged to let this stew so the flavors developed and I began to taste it in it fullness.

Morning Musings-10/2/2020 "Initiator or Responder?" Quaker mystic Thomas Kelly (18931941) writes, "In this humanistic age we suppose we are the initiators and God is the responder." I can understand that. As westerners we have become so sure of our ability to be self-deterministic that we easily fall prey to this understanding.... Throughout scripture though we can see that when humans try to be the initiators things always end up becoming objects of hurt, scorn, and exclusion. Why? I think that this is because we become purveyors of power instead of people who have the "Spirit of Christ" in them. This "Spirit of Christ" can only bring healing, acceptance, and hope to a world who is hurting due to neglect, silencing of voices, and separation/exclusion from life-giving activities and fulfillments (i.e., food, shelter, clothing, and human interaction that is positive). Much of this shows itself through the very prayers we emit. We want to be the initiators of needs, even though we have been told time and again that God knows our needs before we ask. Trust me, Reading this mornings personal devotions really caught me. I am that initiator when I should be that responder. I seek God to do "my" will instead of desiring to do God's will far too often. Part of listening and following Christ is letting go of this desire to have my will satisfied and instead seek to satisfy God's will which we find throughout scripture reminds us that that will is to "do justice, have mercy, and stay in love with God". My only real example of this lived out is truly Jesus the Christ, so how can I trust anyone else to guide me. May I open to allow this guidance and leading to begin the full transformation the "good news" brings as it always begins inside of me. Amen.

Morning Musings-9/30/2020 "The Margins of Humility" We, as Americans, tend to have real difficulty being humble. We are proud of our nation, our heritage, and (unfortunately) even those things which would diminish our acceptance among the many peoples of the world. Yet to live in true humility will always place us on the margins of society, of the acceptance of the empire, of living the current status quo.... Humbling ones self requires us to let go of all the things we are certain will lead to wealth, power, yes even security and long life. It is the way of Jesus. Charles Foucauld (b. 1858-d.1916), a former French Army Cavalry Officer, explorer, geographer, and eventually a Catholic priest who left mainstream society to engage in the hermit life of the desert, writes, "Never think that in lowering yourself you have less power for good." (Meditations of a Hermit). Foucauld is speaking of the understanding of Jesus who (as stated in St, Paul's letter to the Philippians), "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of deatheven death on a cross." (Phil. 2:6-8 NRSV) Yes, becoming this humble will always put us on the margins of the accepted status quo as we live into the discipleship we claim as followers of Jesus, especially when we try to avoid becoming a betrayer of Jesus. when we find ourselves out on the margins instead of seeking out our old acquaintances and friends that adhere to societies "status quo" we find a new group of people who truly know what it is to seek God. Their longings for healing, their hope is always found in the constant search to reach something greater. Maybe we can reinvent ourselves to be the disciples who end up being martyred by world for our real commitment to the life, love, and grace of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Morning Musings-9/25/2020 "Conspiracy of the Poor" No, I am not speaking of some government overthrowing conspiracy, rather I am talking about the conspiracy we are invited to participate in when we begin to live out the life we claim-Crist followers.... Simon Tugwell, English Dominican Priest, reminds us that in the giving of "two mites", all that an elderly woman had to live on, that many saw it as a nuisance. It would not fix a roof, would not purchase the new carpet, would not even pay for much more than a cup of coffee at Wall Drug Store in South Dakota (home of 5 cent cups of coffee). It may well have seemed a nuisance for the counters and recorders of the offering who would rather use round dollar numbers than the small amounts of change that may not make it easy to rectify the book records. What it does do though is to let the person enjoy the feeling of contributing to the work of God's kingdom. As a pastor I have heard the complaints of financial secretaries, offering counters, and even the treasurers. Until we (yes, all of us) learn that we cannot force God's kingdom and work to be the way we want, we will always face the struggles and upsets that come when we think of "the poor which we will always have with us". It is a conspiracy only due to the fact that they are as important in God's kingdom as the wealthiest person who can give much. Let us reflect on this. Amen.